E. Rowan Mena

Enhanced ebooks

April 11, 2011 by E. Rowan

Apparently, the near-simultaneous birth and death of enhanced ebooks is being heralded by some at the London Book Fair (which I am not at, so all of this is reflecting on articles written on the talks there, not first-hand experience). At The Digital Reader the managing director of Bloomsbury is quoted as having said: “Enhanced will have an incredibly big future in education, but the idea of innovation in the narrative reading process is just a non-starter, I’ve been smug […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, ebooks, enhanced ebook, innovation, new media, publishing

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Online Journals Thrive, Too

April 9, 2011 by E. Rowan

A heartening article in the NYTimes, which I hardly ever read seriously due to their disgraceful dismissal of literary translation, caught my attention yesterday. Literary journals are doing well despite economic difficulties, publishing industry difficulties, and rashes of bookstore closures. Literary journals, because they are focused on small communities of like-minded readers, are not only surviving they are thriving. The article then goes on to talk about a bunch of wonderful west-coast print journals. Emphasis on print. They talk about […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, independent publishing, literary journals, online journals, publishing

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To publish: print or online?

April 7, 2011 by E. Rowan

This came up in my post about the 21st century publishing conference I attended a few weeks ago, and about Rebecca Frank Morgan’s comments about the ecosystem of literary publishing. But I think it’s worth further thought. Is there a real benefit to publishing in print rather than online? It used to be, back in the early days of the galactic interwebs, that online literary publishing was stigmatized. I know, how could that be? Aren’t artists, especially writers, supposed to […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, elit, eliterature, experimental poetry, independent publishing, literary journals, new media, online publishing, publishing

The sky goes missing

April 6, 2011 by E. Rowan

This year I was asked to be on the committee for the Best Translated Book Award given out by Open Letter Books for newly-translated works of poetry and fiction published within the last year. It was great, not only did I get to read tons of great translated poetry, I got to talk seriously about it with other amazing poets and translators. And the award will be announced just after the translation slam at PEN World Voices! In the meantime, […]

Categories: Poetry, Reviews, Translation • Tags: Best Translated Book Award, Open Letter Books, PEN World Voices, review, Three Percent, Time of Sky & Castles in the Air, translation

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Timeless or timely

April 2, 2011 by E. Rowan

Over at Harriet, one of their poetry month guest bloggers, Rachel Zucker starts off with this question: “Is it more important to you that your poems be timeless or timely and why?” Why the absurdly simplistic (and plain absurd) dichotomy? Implied: it can only be one or the other. Implied: politics have no place in poetry. Implied: poetry should be distanced from the world. But surprising from Zucker, whose poetry is so engaged. Perhaps she’s playing into the common (mis)understanding of poetry’s […]

Categories: Poetry

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Copyediting Spam

March 31, 2011 by E. Rowan

We all get endless amounts of spam – and I usually just delete it, but sometimes the first few sentences are so poorly written that I just have to open and read it. And, of course, edit it: from John Smith <johnsmith099066@gmail.com> sender-time Sent at 12:33 AM (GMT-07:00). Current time there: 4:33 AM. [Interesting, your time zone is not Ireland but rather in the Pacific Standard Time Zone] reply-to johnsmith0996@i12.com [at least bother to standardize your sent from and reply to…] […]

Categories: Uncategorized

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Ebooks have no style

March 30, 2011 by E. Rowan

I’m finally beginning to understand so many literary publisher’s resistance to ebooks: There is no room for real literature in these formats. Using the top two current digital book formats, ePub and Mobi, it’s difficult to present the content as more than a string of words. And literature is more than a string of words. The experience of reading the book matters, the presentation matters. If you had to read Shakespeare without any line breaks, or proper pagination, it would […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, Anomalous, ebooks, independent publishing, poetry, publishing

Book Hoard

March 29, 2011 by E. Rowan

I’ve been struggling with what to do with my books in the face of impending moves. This seems like a great idea, if only I were in one place long enough to make it real: Anyone in Boston want to set up a community library? I’ve got a collection of poetry and theory books that I’m looking to rehome….

Categories: Uncategorized

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21st Century Publishing

March 29, 2011 by E. Rowan

A few weeks I went to a conference on 21st century publishing held at Emerson College and sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. When I received the announcement I was impressed and excited, the subject was Business Models for 21st Century Publishing and this is something, with the launch of my new press, I’d been giving a lot of thought to. The day itself started ominously enough when the managing editor of Ploughshares asked if there was a hashtag for […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, Agni, Anomalous, Bateau Press, Emerson, hilobrow, independent publishing, Memorious, net neutrality, new media, Ploughshares, publishing, Weightless Books

Reading the World #9: Martha Collins

March 28, 2011 by E. Rowan

Erica Mena (that’s me!) and special co-host Mike Schorsch talk with translator and poet Martha Collins about translation as political action, and translation of Vietnamese poetry. Martha is an amazing poet, my first translation workshop teacher, and big influence in my work and in my life. We recorded this last year (!) at AWP in Denver, and it was such a treat to get to talk with her about her work. This is one of my favorite podcasts to date, […]

Categories: Podcasts • Tags: Martha Collins, podcast, poetry, political poetry, Reading the World, translation, Vietnam, Vietnamese poetry

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